A day before the public descended on LTV Studios for a long-awaited hearing on the Wainscott Commercial Center subdivision, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals had a hearing of its own Tuesday to consider whether the proposal would need a special permit as a planned industrial park.
It was narrow in scope and drew only a few comments from the public, as opposed to the dozens who turned out for Wednesday night's planning board meeting.
If the Z.B.A. determines no special permit is required, then the application would proceed in front of the planning board as a preliminary subdivision only, and the general and special permit standards of the town code would not apply. This would give Wainscott Commercial more leeway in how the land is developed. However, if the Z.B.A. determines a special permit is required, amendments to the preliminary subdivision application and to its environmental impact statement, which has been a five-year work in progress, may be required. This would give the town further ability to mold the development, which at present runs counter to the comprehensive plan it adopted in 2005.
Eric Schantz, the assistant town planning director, gave a brief history of the Wainscott Commercial Center, and read the town code’s definition of a planned industrial park: “a development of industrial land involving the subdivision of a large lot into five or more lots, each of which is at least 20,000 square feet in area.”
While the development “clearly would seem to meet that definition,” Mr. Schantz could not find precedent in past applications before the town of planned industrial parks that were required to get a permit.
“That should not preclude this board from asking other questions,” he said, as the other applications were “not completely analogous to this situation.”
He made it clear that the Planning Department took no stand on the matter.
David Eagan, a lawyer speaking for Wainscott Commercial, said the whole question, which he called the “special permit claim” was merely an attempt by Randy Parsons, a member of the planning board, and the Super Law Group, which represents Friends of the Georgica Pond Foundation, to delay the application.
“Member Parsons and Super Law Group believe somehow applying special permit standards is going to make it more difficult to get an approval,” he said. He asserted that because Wainscott Commercial was not sure what would eventually happen to the lots post-subdivision, and because they were not introducing any new uses, a special permit was not needed.
“This is all about going through the subdivision process and creating the lots,” he said, not discussing the uses on those lots, which might require special permits in the future.
Mr. Eagan said there were two separate processes involved to create the final development: first, the subdivision process, which would simply create the lots and their layout. After that, when each lot is sold and built out, the use and building on each lot would be considered by the Z.B.A. He argued that the time to consider special permits was at the “lot level” of development.
“I don’t think you can mash them together,” he said. “They’re asking you to force us to apply for a special permit for a use we’re not introducing.”
Reed Super, a lawyer speaking on behalf of the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, disagreed. He said it didn’t matter that Wainscott Commercial did not know all the future uses for each of the 50 lots it is requesting.
“The special permit needed now is not for all the lots’ specific uses,” he said. The 70-acre planned industrial park is itself a use, that required a special permit, he argued. “The special permit is required now for its overall layout, its roads, its access, its drainage, and the other infrastructure wholly apart from the use on any particular lot.”
“If no special permit application is required now,” he argued, “then the Wainscott Commercial Center will alone determine the location and the designs for the overall infrastructure plan and the layout and will apply for building permits to implement all of that without any of the safeguards of the special permit and it will be too late to apply those standards later.”
Debra Foster, a former town councilwoman who helped draft the Town’s Comprehensive Plan of 2005, urged the zoning board to require Wainscott Commercial to apply for a special permit. She said failing to do so would “take away the teeth we need” to deal with large-scale subdivisions on land with commercial uses. She wondered if Wainscott Commercial would agree in a covenant to restrict certain uses on the land.
“That’s not the purview of this evening,” said Roy Dalene, the board’s chairman. “We’re not here to decide if there could be a nuclear power plant there.”
The hearing ended with Ms. Foster chiding the board for cutting her off, and for closing the hearing before others could submit letters.
Hope DeLauter, the assistant town attorney, responded that the hearing had been properly noticed, and that any letters should have been submitted within the proper time frame.
